Timeframe for Initial Evaluation

Timeframe for Initial Evaluation --

Let’s move on from the prerequisites for evaluation (parental notification and parental consent) to the actual process of initial evaluation and what the law requires. Let us assume that parents’ informed consent has been given, and it’s time to evaluate the child. Must this evaluation be conducted within a certain period of time after parents give their consent?initial

Yes. In its reauthorization of IDEA in 2004, Congress added a specific timeframe: The initial evaluation must be conducted within 60 days of receiving parental consent for the evaluation–or if the state establishes its own timeframe for conducting an initial evaluation, within that timeframe. (In other words: Any timeframe established by the state takes precedence over the 60-day timeline required by IDEA.)

 

The Scope of Evaluation --

A child’s initial evaluation must be full and individual, focused on that child and only that child. This is a longstanding provision of IDEA. An evaluation of a child under IDEA means much more than the child sitting in a room with the rest of his or her class taking an exam for that class, that school, that district, or that state. How the child performs on such exams will contribute useful information to an IDEA-related evaluation, but large-scale tests or group-administered instruments are not enough to diagnose a disability or determine what, if any, special education or related services the child might need, let alone plan an appropriate educational program for the child.

The evaluation must use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about the child, including information provided by the parent. When conducting an initial evaluation, it’s important to examine all areas of a child’s functioning to determine not only if the child is a child with a disability, but also determine the child’s educational needs. This full and individual evaluation includes evaluating the children:

• health,

• vision and hearing,

• social and emotional status,

• general intelligence,

• academic performance,

• communicative status, and

• motor abilities

 

As IDEA states, the school system must ensure that—

…the evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the child’s special education and related service’s needs, whether or not commonly linked to the disability category in which the child has been classified.